The Vampire Diaries: I'm Thinking of You All the While (6x22)

Okay so this actually made me cry real tears. But despite that significant accomplishment, I still feel like there were a couple of things that didn't quite work. Let's go over this emotionally devastating finale, as we say a tearful goodbye to Nina Dobrev!

In the aftermath of Kai's attack on the wedding, we see that Jo has died, and many people are injured. Elena has been knocked out, and Damon can't get her to wake up. He rushes her to the hospital. Kai stabs himself in the neck, killing himself and thus killing all of the other Gemini Coven members. Liv is dying because of this. Tyler has a huge piece of glass embedded in his torso, and it looks like he won't make it either. Liv convinces Tyler to smother her, killing her and triggering his werewolf curse. It's a full moon, so the transformation will cure Tyler. Tyler, tears in his eyes, does it. He manages to get a message to Matt that he's a werewolf now, so all the vampires need to stay away from him for his own safety.

Meanwhile, Lily is looking for her friends - Kai promised that they would be brought back. She tells Enzo that she gave Kai her blood in exchange for the rescue of her friends. This means... Kai is a vampire and a witch! He shows up just as Alaric is putting Jo's body into his car for transport. Kai gets ready to attack Alaric, when Tyler shows up and bites Kai!

Bonnie and Matt find a video that Kai made in the prison world. It explains that he got out using stored Bennett blood, and that he has a special punishment in mind for Bonnie - he linked her life to Elena's! Elena will remain asleep, eternally human and not aging, until Bonnie dies. When Bonnie dies, Elena will wake up. Matt tries to convince Bonnie to leave, because he figures Damon will kill her to wake Elena up. Bonnie goes to confront Kai, who slams her against the wall and leaves her close to death. Damon shows up. At first, it looks like he's going to let Bonnie die, but then he comes around behind Kai and karate chops his head off. He feeds Bonnie his blood, healing her.

The plan is as follows: Everybody will get to say a final goodbye to Elena by sharing her thoughts. After that, they will have to seal her away for her own protection - if the word gets out that the cure to vampirism is inside of her, she'll be in real danger. The goodbyes are all personal and touching. Elena tells Matt that he's always been a solid presence in her life, and that she thinks he'll make an excellent police officer and protect so many people. Elena encourages Tyler to get out of Mystic Falls and figure out his life, embrace his nature as a wolf, and move on from all his hardships. Her memory with Bonnie and Caroline is of the three of them having a sleepover. She tells them both to write down everything that happens to them in their lives, so when she wakes up it will be like she was there. Caroline, who will get to see Elena again, after all, leaves Bonnie and Elena alone for a tearful one-on-one goodbye. Elena tells Alaric that he needs to let all the pain in, let it overwhelm him, so that every second that he survives it will make him stronger. Jeremy rushes back in time to see Elena, and he tells her that he wants her to understand that he's doing what makes him happy and fulfilled. Elena thanks Stefan for giving her happiness when she thought she would never be happy again. They express their deep love for one another. Finally, Damon and Elena share a dance together on the street where they first met. Damon kisses Elena goodbye, preparing to spend the next sixty years of his life without her.

In the end, we see that Kai actually did fulfill his promise and bring Lily's vampire-witch family back to Mystic Falls, so that's going to be trouble. We also see Caroline and Stefan share a talk. Stefan tells Caroline how much she means to him, and says that he'll wait for her to be ready to be with him.

The last shot is a flash-forward. Matt is driving in a police car through a desolate and run-down Mystic Falls. We see Damon, dark and sexy, surveying the town from the top of the clock tower.

This episode was brutal. I will start with my complaints, because I do - inevitably - have them.

First of all, I think the excuse that Elena's life might be in danger so they have to lock her up in a coffin and never ever see her is rather weak. Like, couldn't Bonnie put some protective spell on the coffin but still allow Damon and the others to visit once in a while? I understand why, in the real world, this couldn't happen - Nina Dobrev is leaving the show. But the in-story explanation was a bit flimsy. This didn't have to be goodbye for Elena and Bonnie. Or Elena and Jeremy, Alaric, etc. It's just silly. Like... she's right there. You could still share thoughts with her and it would be fine.

Also, I felt like Jo's death was hardly addressed. I understand, obviously, the need to give the bulk of this episode to Elena. It's the protagonist's last episode on the show. It's only fitting. But Jo was an important character, too, and the only character we saw grieving for her was Alaric. Nobody else seemed to even care that she was gone. Hopefully we can see Jo's death have some sort of an impact beyond turning Ric into even more of an alcoholic. It just doesn't seem fair to her character otherwise.

But for the most part, I have to give this episode props for doing something I didn't expect, and actually making me emotional. Let's go over the good stuff, which was most of it.

Kai. What a villain. Seriously. When he stabbed himself in the neck, I was sure there would have to be a twist coming. And then he was a vampire. And then he was dying of a werewolf bite, and then he managed to fend off that by siphoning the magic of the werewolf venom and converting it to more magic. (I mean, that's kind of total crap, but whatever. This show can get away with stuff like that). Every second that he's on screen, he's hamming it up in the best possible way. Then there's the way he was killed off. Damon freakin' KARATE CHOPPED HIS HEAD OFF. That was one of the most bad ass and unexpected moments on this show. Ever.

Then there's the Bonnie and Damon situation. Seriously phenomenal acting from Kat Graham when she thought Damon was leaving her to die. She looked so hurt, and yet resigned, because she knows her whole life is about being sacrificed for her friends. I think my favorite thing from this whole season is that Bonnie has finally gotten the attention she deserves. And Damon kissed her on the forehead, and saved her life, and later Elena referred to Bonnie as Damon's best friend, and I just... my heart... it exploded in pure joy.

Stefan and Damon didn't get a lot of time together in this episode, but there was one moment that just made me so, so excited for next season. It seems like we're getting a more bromance-focused show, now that Elena's gone, and that's one thing I'm totally down for. Stefan talks to Caroline about how much Elena has meant to him in his life. He loved her, more than he ever thought it was possible to love someone, but Elena actually gave him something else that might be even more valuable - she gave him his relationship with his brother. Stefan expresses that he needed Damon more than he needed Elena, and he'll always be grateful for that. Woah! If anything could get me even more pumped for next season, that would be it.

There's one thing that I didn't mention in the complaints category because I'm just not sure about it yet. That shot at the end, of Damon surveying the town from the top of the clock tower... I'm not sure about the implications. One implication is that Damon has gone dark again. He's flipped his humanity switch, due to the pain of losing Elena. If that's the case, then it's freaking stupid. I'm so, so sick of the humanity switch plot device. It's getting really old, people. But... there's another possibility here too. Maybe it's a sort of vigilante thing, with Damon surveying the town as a dark superhero. Maybe the town is in shambles because of the witch-vampires, and Damon is one of its protectors. If that's the angle they're going for, then I wholeheartedly approve. We'll just have to see how this plays out!

One of the interesting things they've done with this whole concept of linking Bonnie and Elena is that they've opened up the door for Nina Dobrev to come back into the show some day, but they've also given Bonnie a more solid, permanent spot on the roster. They can't just kill her off (again) to service the plot. If she dies, Elena's absence suddenly doesn't make sense. I love that, because I love Bonnie and I adore that she's finally getting a chance to shine.

Obviously, every single one of the goodbyes broke my heart in the best possible way. When Elena asked Caroline and Bonnie to write everything down, and then started crying when she said it would be like she was really there... ouch. Her goodbye with Jeremy, where he promised her he was living the life he wanted to live... and with Alaric, as he's still crushed over the loss of Jo and his children... the pain! The feelings! Stefan's goodbye was appropriately crushing, and I liked all the throwbacks to the early days of this show. It seems like forever since anybody took the idea of Stefan and Elena as a couple seriously, but there was a time when I loved the thought of the two of them, and I miss that. Finally, there's that dance with Damon. It's silly, it's over the top, cheesy, too dramatic, whatever. I don't care. It was gold. It was all I wanted, to see these two ridiculously romantic people share a ridiculously romantic moment before saying goodbye for a long time.

Going in to next season, I want lots of the Damon/Stefan brotherly bond, and I want a lot of Damon and Bonnie as best friends, and Stefan and Caroline as our central couple. If we can get that, and it looks like we might, I'll be very happy.

I have to end this review by expressing how much Nina Dobrev is going to be missed on this show. Honestly, she's way too good for the CW. I put her and Jensen Ackles from Supernatural in the same category, of actors who could be Emmy winners if they weren't doing genre work. Nina has played so many different variations of so many different characters. Human Elena, vampire Elena, vampire Elena sans-humanity, Katherine as a human and as a vampire, and more. Each time she's on screen, she is giving 150% to the moment. I feel really lucky to have gotten to watch a show with such a rich, talented actor in the principle role. I think this show might be able to survive without her, but it's going to have some pretty big shoes to fill.

There you are! A very emotional episode, indeed. I'll keep watching to see what they do with this show now that they've lost their protagonist!

9/10